Friday, May 25, 2012

Forewarned

Scotland Yard was aware, they knew because MI5 had informed them that some of the officers in their ranks were suspected of having attended terrorist training camps. And because those particular police officers had been identified, there were very careful investigations carried out to clarify whether the suspicions had any degree of accuracy. And they did.

They were identified as "sleepers" in the ranks of Scotland Yard.

The result of which was that their security clearances were revoked by senior officers. One man's identity has never been revealed, although the investigation did conclude positively that there had been attendance at a terror camp. Others, however, were publicly identified. One of whom had been a member of the constabulary for three years when the MI5 warning came.

He had travelled to Pakistan and it had been suspected he had been at a training camp while in the country. He wasn't dismissed from the force, but chose to resign. And he chose also to sue Scotland Yard, claiming to be innocent and that accusations he had been to a terror training camp represented an unsupportable slur.

According to his lawyers he was never questioned, arrested or charged under terrorism legislation.

Abdul Rahman, 33 years of age, bears the distinction of representing the first British police officer ever to have failed counter-terrorism checks. As far as is known publicly. As far as Scotland Yard is concerned it took action "for the purpose of safeguarding national and public security." Unnamed sources indicate there were another one or two of whom MI5 was suspicious.

"There was concern that these people had come into the force under false pretenses. There were two or three cases at the same time that were of a similar nature, where there were concerns about potential terrorist links", explained a senior Metropolitan Police source.

This was a man born in Bangladesh and raised in London, then finally becoming a British citizen. He hasn't argued that he did not travel to Pakistan in 2001. A lengthy legal battle is in progress over his departure from the force. The case is being heard by a security-vetted judge.

His clearance had been revoked during a security review by MI5 after a terrorist attack in Britain in July 2005.

That only one or two or possibly three such underground "sleepers" have been identified in the years since 2001 and the attacks on Britain subsequent to that date represents the surprise, given the religious-ideological intrigues and sermons that have taken place in British mosques with seeming impunity.

Islamists have taken very readily to using the social justice instruments inherent in British law to their advantage, playing little games of hide-and-seek with authorities, urging the faithful to be loyal to Islamist jihad.

This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.